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Subject:RE: Great piece on marketing collateral From:Mailing List <mlist -at- ca -dot- safenet-inc -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 30 Apr 2004 11:15:38 -0400
Mike O. opined:
> kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com wrote:
> > It's funny - one of the hardest things I've ever done was
> to try to get a
> > team of tech writers to emphasize the *benefit* of the
> product they were
> > documenting.
>
> That's because tech writers are trained to back up everything
> they say
> with real technical facts. Marcomm (and Sales) is not held to
> that same
> standard, so of course writing about a product's "benefits" is easier
> for them.
[...]
> I am allergic to writing stuff like "increases your sales" ... "saves
> you money" ... "a powerful, easy-to-use, best-of-breed
> product" when I
> haven't tested it to be true. And especially when I KNOW it
> isn't true.
Whenever I encounter that sort of stuff in a document,
I drop the thing and start looking around for the "real"
technical docs that I need.
If the piece with the bumpf in it is all that's
available, I have a lot less confidence in the document
and the product.
Don't misunderstand. I read marcomm stuff, often when I
don't even have to . . . :-) I just don't want to
see it in an instructional or reference document. As far
as I'm concerned, the bumpf cheapens the techy doc, by
being out-of-place and inappropriate.
In general, I've already bought your product. You don't
need to sell me again, while I'm looking for how to use
it. Marketing-speak is noise and clutter in a technical
document. People who ask to see the user documents
during the sales process are not asking because they
want to see a continuation of the "sizzle" and the
razzle-dazzle. If they asked for it, or even if they
didn't demur when offered, it's because they want to
see if it looks technically solid, accessible, and complete.
Does it look like something that they (or their tame
technicians) can use to get the product going and producing
(as advertised in the bumpf)?
When my schedule got really tight last autumn, a local
marketing guy wrote a QuickStart Guide. It was technically
correct, but I ended up pulling a couple of all-nighters
to re-write it without the gush. I didn't want anybody to
think that it represented my work... even though my name
doesn't appear in our docs.
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